Atrophy (9 page)

“It’s nothing new. The legal system doesn’t always mean justice. More often than not, the IPC laws serve those with the money.”

She huffed a short sigh. Lianna was right, as much as it aggravated her to admit. “It might be that way, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
And do something about it when I see the chance
. So long as Rian agreed to help.

And he would. She’d make sure of that.

Chapter Six

T
annin had woken up but stayed in bed, listening to the unfamiliar hum of the ship’s systems, the swell of voices every now again, and comprehending the fact that he was no longer on Erebus. He didn’t have to get up and put on a prison uniform. He didn’t have to spend hours slaving in the administrative center. He didn’t have to wonder for the millionth time if he’d ever escape. Because he’d actually done it. He’d gotten on the
Imojenna
and was now light years away from the prison and getting farther away all the time.

He still didn’t fully trust that Rian wouldn’t change his mind and either dump him or alert the authorities, but the more distance he put between him and that planet, the more chance he had of staying out.

A knock sounded on the door and he sat up, pushing the blankets off and glancing at the clock in the nearby bulkhead. It’d been fourteen hours since he’d left Zahli in the galley, and though he’d missed two meals, he’d spent most of those hours sleeping more soundly than he had in all the time he’d been on Erebus.

He walked over to the small crystal display in the bulkhead next to the door and brought up an image of Zahli waiting in the corridor, plate in her hand.

Bending down, he grabbed his prison-issue pants because they were his only option in clothing, and then picked up the shirt Zahli had given him. As he shrugged into it, he tapped the control. When the door opened, she didn’t look any higher than his chest, following his hands as he tugged the shirt down over his stomach.

She cleared her throat then dropped her gaze to the plate she held. “I brought you some breakfast with an extra helping since you didn’t have dinner last night. We’re supposed to have three, maybe four days of fresh food before we need to resort to repli-rations, but the way Callan eats, we’ll be lucky if it lasts another rotation. So you might want to eat some of this while you can.”

“Um, thanks.” He reached down and took the plate from her, the scents coming from the beef jerky, eggs, and toast making his mouth water.

She gave a short laugh and then pushed her hair back, avoiding his gaze. “Sorry, I was totally rambling then.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t really notice.” Well, he had, but he actually thought it’d been kind of cute. Which was the dead last thing he should be thinking about a woman who had a psychopath for a brother. In fact, her just standing in the passageway outside his door made him antsy, since last time said psychopathic brother had found them alone, he’d ended that little meeting with a whole lot of bloodshed.

She sent him a look that said she didn’t believe his words and didn’t intend on budging from his doorway any time soon.

“Was there something else you wanted?” He stepped back and took the plate over to set it down on the table.

She followed him in with slow steps, glancing around the bare room. “Actually, yes, there is.”

He picked up a fork to keep his hands busy, not sure he wanted to eat. Between the threat of Rian and getting caught by the IPC, an appetite was hard to find. What if she told him her brother had changed his mind? What if Rian had already contacted the officers on Erebus, and they were on their way to take him back? He swallowed against the tightening in his guts and looked up as Zahli tapped the door controls, closing them in.

Never mind the authorities hunting him down. Rian would stab him repeatedly and then space the tiny pieces of his hacked-up body if the captain knew he and Zahli were shut in this room alone. “Is that such a good idea? Your brother—”

“My brother is exactly why I’m here.” Zahli came over and slid in behind the opposite side of the table to sit on the padded seat along the bulkhead.

“So you
want
him to stab me again? Because last time he found us in a room together—”

“Don’t worry about that,” Zahli waved a dismissive hand. “He’s preoccupied with some cargo we’re going to pick up.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, moving to sit across from her, because he wasn’t sure he really believed they were safe. Plus, even if they did happen to avoid the hazard of Rian, his own over-active thoughts about her weren’t exactly doing this situation any favors. While parts of him—clearly moronic parts—liked the idea of spending time alone with her more than he had any right to, and would be indebted to her for the rest of his life, he really wanted her out of this room before Rian found another reason to maim him. “So what is this about?”

She shifted forward in her seat, leaning over the table. “When you first came onboard yesterday morning, you said something about Rian being an assassin?”

He stabbed his fork into some eggs, his hunger returning with a vengeance, since apparently this conversation had nothing to do with him or his tenuous freedom.

“That’s what I heard, yeah.”

Zahli clasped her hands tightly together on the table. “I need to hear all of it. Everything you know.”

He shoveled some food into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully before he swallowed.

“It wasn’t much, not any specific details. This prisoner came in about seven years ago. He got caught up in some raid when the IPC authorities were searching for a big time black-market trader. The guy was pissed because someone who’d also been picked up in the raid was an ex-military officer, and instead of sending him to Erebus, he got re-enlisted. After the war ended and the stories about Rian were plastered all over the place, this prisoner got all up in arms because he recognized Rian as the guy he’d been so pissed about. He had some theory that your brother had actually been undercover for the military, working as some kind of assassin. Apparently even then, Rian’s body count was legendary.”

He clamped his mouth closed after that last bit, not thinking, until after the words came out, that maybe Zahli didn’t need to know her brother was possibly an infamous assassin.

“It’s okay, I’ve experienced Rian’s abilities first-hand. There’s not much you could tell me that I’d be shocked by.”

He nodded and dug into the cooling food while Zahli sat with her chin in her hand, expression preoccupied as though she was working through the information.

“There’s got to be more to it,” she murmured, almost to herself as he scraped the last of the meal off his plate and then pushed it aside.

“Something more than being a government assassin?” Seemed badass enough without needing to add anything else to the mix.

“Yeah, because I know a little about what happened, but I don’t have the full picture and he won’t tell me. While government assassin kind of makes sense, it doesn’t fit in with what I already know.” She sighed, shoving her hair back and twisting it so it stayed behind her shoulders. “Rian wasn’t always like this. The war made him a completely different person. And he’s definitely not as bad now as he was when he first got home, but I still want to help him. And to do that, I need to know everything.”

“I bet his military records are full of reports, but they’d be classified. If they exist at all.” Especially if the guy had been a high-ranking assassin, which, considering what he now personally knew of Sherron, made perfect sense.

“Of course.” Zahli sat straighter in her seat, dark blue eyes sparking with anticipation. “You said you were some kind of super-hacker. Can you get his military records?”

“Seriously?” He’d mentioned the records off-handedly, not as a hint that she needed to see them. “Zahli, I can’t hack into the IPC military.”

For a second she looked deflated, but then she eyed him suspiciously. “Can’t, or won’t?”

Crap. He’d never been a good liar, even after spending twelve years on Erebus. And Zahli’s stare was all but burning through him.

“I am not going to hack the IPC military.” There, that was a definite answer without answering.

He’d just gotten out of Erebus, he didn’t plan on doing anything that could land him back in there.

Zahli leaned across the table again. “This is really important. I
need
those records.”

He stood, turning away from her, since the way she was looking at him was chopping his insides to mush and making him want to fold like a cheap hull in heavy grav.

“No, what you need is to stay off Erebus. In fact, it’d be great if everyone onboard this ship could stay off Erebus as a collective. If I tried and didn’t manage to cover my tracks, the authorities could trace the hack right back to this ship, and every single person onboard the
Imojenna
would end up on Erebus indefinitely.”

He paced to the bed and tugged the sheets straight then arranged the blankets more neatly.

“Tannin, I wouldn’t be asking unless it was really important. Like I’m talking life or death important.
My
life or death.”

He straightened from lining up the pillows and dragged a hand through his hair. Goddamnit. He suspected that there were things going on under the surface on this ship about five minutes after he’d boarded. But he’d figured it was none of his business, and he’d be off again in a matter of two short rotations. He was content wallowing in his ignorant bliss. But now he had to wonder just what in the dark pits of hell had Rian gotten his sister into.

Like when the officer had lured her alone back on Erebus, it seemed he couldn’t just walk away and ignore Zahli, even if it would end up being risky to his own safety. Because he could only imagine the kind of special torture Rian would inflict on him if the guy knew he’d hacked his sealed military records and handed them over to his sister. No doubt Rian had his reasons for not telling Zahli everything, and it probably started and ended with wanting to protect her. He was certainly starting to get intimately acquainted with that particular urge.

He turned around to see her standing by the table, staring at him with too much hope gleaming in her eyes.

“I’m not making any promises, but I’ll think about it.” The words pretty much came out of their own volition, because surely, if self-preservation had been in control of his mouth, he would have refused.

“Thank you, Tannin. I didn’t want to have to use blackmail by reminding you who helped you escape from Erebus.” She sent him a grin, making him think the blackmail thing hadn’t really been on the cards…maybe. Actually, considering who her brother was, a bit of blackmail might not have been all that unrealistic.

“Well I’m glad I could spare your conscience of stooping to such levels,” he returned dryly.

She gave a light laugh as she picked up the plate. “Got a sense of humor too, huh?”

He shrugged as he followed her to the hatchway. “I always had a sense of humor, I just didn’t have much of a reason to use it the last twelve years.”

At the doorway, they both reached for the control panel at the same time, their hands colliding. Zahli glanced up at him, and it wasn’t until that moment he realized how close to her he’d stopped. Only a scant few inches separated them, and the next half-breath he took in, he got nothing but that rain-storm scent of her.

And damned if he didn’t notice that smattering of freckles across her nose again. He’d never given freckles much thought—some people had them and some people didn’t. But on Zahli, they made her that much more gorgeous.

His lungs stalled as he realized exactly where his thoughts had taken him. Obviously he had a death wish. Because that would be the only result of wanting—even for half a second—Rian Sherron’s little sister. He quickly swiped the door open and took a large step back.

“I’m just going to hang out here. I don’t think anyone will want to see me up there.”

A frown marred her brow. “You can’t spend the next rotation and a half locked in this room. You just got out of prison. No one expects you to trade it for a different one.”

He took another step back. “I think your brother might have a pretty strong opinion on that. Besides, I’ve got twelve years worth of movies, music, and media to catch up on. I’m pretty sure the viewer and subspace linkup will keep me entertained for the day.”

She didn’t look very convinced, but stepped out into the corridor. “Okay, but at least come up for meals.”

He sent her a half-smile. “I’ll think about that, too.”

She nodded and waved then headed along the passageway toward the stairs. Tannin swiped the door closed and turned to survey the empty room, somehow seeming starker now that Zahli was no longer here.

His gaze landed on the crystal screen in the desk, and his mind leaped into action. Truthfully, he didn’t know if he could hack the IPC military. Well, he could definitely hack it, but whether or not he could do it without leaving a trace and getting caught was the real question. But he’d spent a lot of time in the IPC systems on Erebus like a ghost, leaving no remnants. Maybe the military systems weren’t all that different. There was only one way to find out.

Mind buzzing and fingers all but tingling at the anticipation of the challenge, he took a seat at the desk and tabbed up a subspace link, then plunged into the virtual reality of IPC data streams.

Z
ahli poked at the food on her plate, even though Jensen had cooked it. And when it was Jensen’s turn to cook, no one refused to eat. The guy might be a genius when it came to engines, but he could just as easily have made a career as a chef on a first class luxury cruiser.

She glanced at the galley hatchway for the millionth time. Tannin hadn’t come out of his cabin all day. She’d sent messages to the room at lunch time and again a few minutes ago, before everyone sat down at the large table in the middle of the common room. She could understand him feeling like an intruder, but going without food definitely wasn’t the answer to that problem.

So she hurried through her meal and only half paid attention to the conversations going on around her, deciding that she would just have to take him a plate like she had at breakfast.

Luckily, Rian ate faster than she did and disappeared across to his quarters, no doubt to follow up his meal with a few glasses of Violaine, like usual, and continue plotting his grand plans against the Reidar. Not that she thought he actually had any kind of grand plan in mind.

It seemed like they spent more time avoiding the Reidar while Rian flew them around the galaxy searching for ways to link all the separate pieces of information he had about them. Maybe if her brother did have an actual plan in mind, besides the unfocused goal of
total annihilation
, they might gain some ground in what had become a never-ending game of cat and mouse.